Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General The Second Sundering - A Bit of Lore

You really should read this to better understand the game. It will help you tremendously if you are not familiar with Forgotten Realms Lore.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Second_Sundering

I have... feelings. about 4e.

Fun fact: in our currently chronology, only characters that are ~18 or under would have been born in a world where magic was stable and reliable - anyone older than that lived through the previous mess, and this world of reliable, stable magic is relatively new ^.^

In one game I'm in, my character is 17, and she's the only one in the party who *didn't* live through the second sundering.

Uh, the lore in Forgotten realms when it comes to history and creation mythos, always gives me headaches as I'm not even nearly familiar with it. The crpg's only handle so few years at the very end of the current timeline and there are so many sources that handles so many events that happened way before that :P

Just out of curiosity, was she a halfling? 😁

But I found curious about the lore that I posted was the constant mentioning of how the gods had various chosen. It's almost as if the absolute is a day late and a dollar short. The second sundering is over, but the absolute still has three chosen. Meanwhile, all the other gods have pretty much stripped their chosen of powers.

I also thought it was interesting because many people seem to think that bg3 is over the top with too much about gods being at war and everything being on a grand scale. But as you read this about the second sundering you will see that bg3 is simply following along with the story that took place within the last decade. As you read it, you see that there is so much deity drama. After reading it, it made me realize that they are just creating a sequel to all that drama. In fact, I give them credit because they have to try to somehow tie in bg3 with over 130 years of this kind of drama. They have to somehow tie it in with the previous two games while still incorporating in all of this other lore that directly affects the game they're creating. That is no simple task.

So I do think we should try to give them a little bit more credit since they are trying to create a sequel in the present forgotten Realms time period but still tie it back to the previous games.

I don't want to come across as negative, but my goodness, what a mess of a setting.

Lol. Nope. You right. Even FR gurus have to constantly reference wiki's for their lore content just to try to keep it all straight. I think they did it on purpose so that DMs could do whatever the freak they wanted and it would work with the setting regardless. Like the tadpole, you can pretty much write off anything as this is because of the second sundering. Oh I know somebody else did something different, but you know, it's hard to say what really happened, isn't it? Everything was just so confusing, how could anyone really be sure what happened and where?

It's very easy to handle this: just ignore everything that happened between the two sunderings, as though they never happened. The "mess" is entirely WotC's doing, and was done deliberately by people WotC brought in with 4e who openly and publicly bragged about hating the FR setting and wanting to "reset" it. So the setting being a mess is not the setting's fault. The setting was awesome prior to the first sundering.

Almost as bad as a Dragon Break.

It is up to the writers to decide the scope, how to frame and which part of the lore to incorporate. Adam Smith repeatedly said this is the story they wanted to tell.

So no, I cannot excuse Larian for making a God of War in BG3.

"Crisis on Infinite Planes" should not be the foundation of a world setting.

I don't know. I mean, I was kinda thinking, "Dang! This game is pretty extreme with all its crazy, off the wall stuff going on," but after pouring back over the Second Sundering events, and knowing that Gorion's Ward was one of the first events of the Second Sundering, with Bhaal being reborn, and then lots of gods warring and Chosen and so on and so forth, this game's setting is set only 5 years after the Second Sundering ended.

And, to top it all off, Elturel just had the Descent happen. So, frankly, like I said, I've got to give Larian some credit here. They're working with a story that is already full of topsy-turvy turmoil with gods and such having just been apart of some pretty major conflicts just 5 years before. You may say that it's up to the writers to decide the scope, but when the scope has already been set to extreme insanity, prior to the events of this game, it's kinda hard to then slam on the breaks and not continue with the insanity.

And then, to top it all off, again, you've got to tie it back into events that took place 120 years prior? It was 1368 when Gorion's Ward and the Bhaalspawn events occurred. This game takes place in 1492. So a CRAP ton of chaos occurred between then. To top it all off, Bhaal, Bane, Myrkul, and many others have just been reborn. Duke Ravengard just took over in Gorion's Ward's place as Grand Duke. He just returned from the Descent - from being in Avernus.

Yeah, I'd say it's the setting more than the writers.

And think about it. BG1 and 2 were about a demi-god striving to either embrace or reject his/her demi-god heritage. In the end, they had a choice whether to become a god/goddess or not.

Fast forward a hundred and twenty years, gods and goddesses were just reborn and warring with each other. What do you expect from a BG sequel in terms of story? Should they not create a story about people who are gifted with some strange new powers who might eventually attain godhood? How would you create a sequel without regurgitating the originals?

I feel a little called out, hehe, but, um...

https://i.imgur.com/nIg7BNk.png

Well, yeah... (Which also means, at 17, she's not formally considered an adult by her people and shouldn't be away from home, but you know how it goes. Sights to see! Stories to learn! A whole world to explore! A whole curse of Barovian vampire lords and shadowfell mists and to get trapped in and nearly have your spirit broken by... wait, what was that last one...?)

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The main issue with the FR lore base is that they feel the need to put in-universe explanations for the major rule shifts and updates each edition - so each new edition we have at lest one major realms-shaking event that 'explains' why everything works a little bit differently now. I'm not convinced this is a good idea, really - it could be handled more subtly.

Totally agree. I'm just saying that it's not necessarily Larian's fault here, which I think a lot of people think. Just look at the lore. Say what you want, BG3 is fitting right in.

That said, do I necessarily like all this Michael Bay hyped reality stuff? Not at the expense of immersion and world building and character development. Would I like a bit more world building and some normalcy? Yes. Sure, there's a lot of crazy going on, but not necessarily everywhere. Quiet towns and sweet and lovable everyday people can be fun to encounter as well amidst your crazy adventure.

It isn't, it feels like changing things to assert authorship if anything.

Not quite. It would be a perfect time for a pause, if they did desire. Like a DM, you can tell the story that you want. Many gamers don't know BG1 or 2 story and even fewer will know FR lore, Larian had a full blank page to do whatever they wanted (and indeed they claimed that).



Not exactly, as you don't know that for much of BG1, and, in BG2, you are trying to retrieve your soul.

Bioware could have done the Time of Troubles and had every deity in the game, but instead, Bhaal is in the background and what you actually see in the game is the conflict between Bhaalspawns. And again there is the Iron Shortage and other subplots fleshed out in the worldbuilding that make you care about the world you are in.

2e FR 4 life.

All right. I see your point. So, in other words, they COULD have started BG3 with you being some nobody from some small village near Elturel. The Cult of the Absolute is some rumor spreading around the area. Who are they? What are they up to? You investigate because you're a mercenary or a cleric on a holy quest or whatever. As you go, you learn more and more about these fanatics. They're infected with something, but what?

Meanwhile, you're having strange dreams. Who is this dream lover? Why are the dreams weird? Why are you suffering from strange pains?

Later in the game, you learn about illithid tadpoles and how Netherese magic is altering them, creating True Souls... And you're one of them. Memories return. You were abducted by an illithid and infected also. You are even a catalyst, a leader tadpole is in your head. Now unknown entities are after you, and you don't even realize your full potential. And what does Bhaal have to do with it all, for you find out he's involved.

Dostoyevsky wrote great novels. That remains true even though my neighbor didn't like The Brothers Karamazov.

Now my neighbor runs around telling the world that Dostoyevsky is a bad writer. This, of course, tells the world more about my neighbor than it does about Dostoyevsky.

In short and in general, the BG3 writers have done a great job. They can't please everyone, of course, and that's too bad, but it's part of life.